Georgia Teacher Allegedly Opens Fire In Classroom

At a time when we’re talking about allowing teachers to use their concealed carry permits in the classroom as a means of neutralizing threats in the school, the last thing anyone wants to see is a teacher acting like a fool with a gun.

A teacher has been taken into custody after allegedly firing at least one shot inside a Georgia high school classroom Wednesday, police said.

The Dalton Police Department identifed the teacher as Jesse Randall Davidson, 53, a social studies teacher who also does play-by-play announcements during the school’s football games. He has been employed with the school since 2004.

Davidson was charged with aggravated assault, carrying a weapon on school grounds, terroristic threats, reckless conduct, possession of a gun during commission of a crime and disrupting public school, police said in a tweet.

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Asst. Chief Cliff Cason of the Dalton Police Department said authorities are currently aware of one shot going off and that it was fired through the classroom window and went outside the building.

Davidson was taken into custody and brought to Whitfield County Jail, Cason said.

He added that the teacher would face “appropriate charges because this is a very egregious act that took place at the school.”

Cason commended the work of the school resource officer, who he said convinced Davidson to surrender to authorities, as well as the school for their response to the situation. He called their execution of the lockdown “flawless.”

Now, for someone like me who supports teachers carrying their firearms into the classroom, this doesn’t look good. After all, it seems unlikely that Davidson wouldn’t have qualified for a Georgia Weapons License.

It seems likely that many would argue this incident highlights the problems with allowing teachers to carry firearms on school campuses, and I’ll admit that it does point out a potential flaw. After all, teachers are like anyone else. They’re not immune from being stupid or losing it completely.

However, I will point out that while Georgia does have campus carry, it only extends to colleges and universities. It doesn’t cover any other schools. That means that Davidson was carrying his firearm illegally, breaking the law just by having the gun on his person when he stepped onto the campus.

If laws were going to prevent people from carrying a gun, Davidson wouldn’t be in hot water right now. But they don’t.

Instead, he carried a firearm onto the campus in spite of the law, then broke other laws as well. Words in a law book weren’t sufficient to keep him from carrying that gun that day.

But what they did manage to do is to make sure there weren’t any armed teachers around to help defend students if need be. While Davidson didn’t seriously hurt anyone–the only injury reported is an injured ankle caused by running away from the threat–he could have, and only the school resource officer (SRO) was capable of meeting the threat.

Luckily, in this case, the SRO did just that. He stepped up and diffused the situation, though I also suspect he’d have been willing to take a more…active role if needed. Thankfully, for all involved, it wasn’t.

Still, this doesn’t really change anyone’s mind on allowing teachers to carry in class. Not really.

After all, if laws worked, none of this would be necessary in the first place.